


Consequences

by veracity



Category: Buffy
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-30
Updated: 2010-12-30
Packaged: 2017-10-18 12:13:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/188779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veracity/pseuds/veracity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joyce is given the news that her daughter just burnt down the school gym. Now she has to make the right choice to help turn Buffy's life around....to move and make a fresh start. [<i>Title given with summary</i>.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Consequences

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a given prompt in Whedonland.

  
Three days. Three days since the news the high school gym was a smoldering pile of ash thanks to some daring and criminal behavior. Three days since everything a mother fears was confirmed. Three days of silent treatment, punishment, begging, pleading, and confusion.

Three days of sudden change.

  


 _Rip, rip, rip._

The tape was firmly placed on the box; middle crease and then the sides, all taped up, ready to go. It was hard, being the mother of a now-juvenile delinquent; all the failings, all the problems, all the things that were willfully ignored or passed off in order to repair a broken marriage. Now being a single parent was the only option since her soon-to-be ex would contribute very little to the care of their daughter.

  


 _Pack, pack, pack._

New job was in place, this house sold, and new city on the horizon. All to provide the best care possible when L.A. abandoned them: the starter wife and screw up. Who had heard of Sunnydale, anyway? But as long as they were accepted, it was a fine. Lucky, too, that the gallery had sent a blind job offer and then proposed to bring her in as a partner.

A good reputation had saved her career, allowing for the move. Her daughter wouldn’t like the change. It was never easy being the new kid on the block. Joyce remembered the move for her own mother’s career change all too well. Unfortunately, it couldn’t be helped. Actions had consequences.

  


 _Stack, stack, stack._

She looked around at the now empty walls and half-empty shelves. This had been home for the past decade, key to family milestones. Now it was being sold and profits split, half-half, like nothing of worth had ever been there before. Marriage, childbirth, career. Now the right path for both dictated a change in scenery. Hopefully a change in errant behavior and better crowd of friends as well.

It wouldn’t be easy. Nothing ever really was. But the women in their family were strong and clever. They would get through this mostly in tact. It's what you do to survive. And she had never backed down before.

A week from tomorrow and the forward motion began.


End file.
